Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1887-10-12
KENYON'S VERSION.
His Five Years Rough Experience
In the West

We had it rough, Molly and /, for
Eve years. We were New Englanders,
both of us; but had come West years
before when l wasn't much more than
boy, to get rid of the lung fevers
used to have every spring sure, and
may be the fall between thrown in.
had nothing but my two hands to start
with; but as soon as I'd made a begin
ning-a small one, of course-I went
back for Molly.
And then, as | said, for five years we
had it rough.
In the first place, we were burned
out in the town, and meyer saved a
thing but the clothes we stood in and
my team. Then we started again out
on the edge of every thing, where land
was cheap, and it looked as if hard
work might count for something. That
time the Indians ran us of. Never
saw an IndianP Well sir, you never
want to. 1 don't want to be hard on
any thing the Lord saw fit TO make. l
suppose He knows what they are for
or what He meant them for-I know
there's good deal of talk lately about
their wrongs. They've had 'em, sure
enough; may be don't see things all
round as i ought to. They say all gen.
eral rules bear hard on particular
cases. I'm one of the particular cases,
perhaps. Anyhow, they killed one of
the children therc-the girl, five years
old; shot her right in full sight of the
cabin, and Molly hasn't got over it till
this day.
l picked up few head of cattle
cheap that fall, and for year we
lived in a wagon, camping and driv-
ing our cattle across the ranges. You
don't know what that life means for a
woman, take it month in and month
out. Cooking over camp fire, and
not much of any thing to cook. any
how; clothes wet half the time; never
warm in winter nor cold in Summer,
and never clean. That year fthe boy
died-snake-bit. We were so+far from
settlement that we couldn't get a
doctor, and we buried him ourselves.
We got into a cabin in the fall. Four
of us, each one poorer than the others,
took section of Government land.
We had our teams and our health, and
we were down to bedrock; not much
of any thing to lose and every thing to
gain. A man will work under such
circumstances, you'll find We built
in the middle on the adjoining corners
of our quarters, and so had little
settlemRat of our own. We did it for
the sake OF the women; for it made an
almighty sight of travel for us to get
over in the course of the day. They
were all New England women. slender
and spare, but solid grit clear through.
Plymouth Rock is pretty good stock.
Never whimper nor complaint out
of one of them, though there wasn't a
second frock in the crowd and il
there was always corn-bread and
coffee enough for two in any of the
shantties it wasn't in ours. After awhile,
though, we had game enough-quail
and prairie chickens. Prairie chick
ems! wouldn't be hired to touch one
now. l remember one day along to.
ward spring when Molly struck We
had had quail and prairie chicken,
prairie chicken and quail, three times q
day ever since l could remember, il
seemed to me. She put her fork down
| and pushed hen plate away and just
quoted out of the Bible. mot one day
nor two days nor five days, neither ter
days nor twenty days, but even until il
come out at yosir nostrils and be loath
some unto YOU" Molly knew the Bi
| bic.
IL really began to look as if we had
touchcd'bottom. That next spring We
got our crops in-corn laid by, rain
and smsbine,a and hot weather all JUS
right Iand now and then we would hea,
u laugh from the houses.
BAIT the day the grasshoppers came
there was mighty little laughing done
| Clayton came in where was taking
1 my noon smoke and kind of dropped
down in chair by the door, as If Ii,
couldn't get any farther.
"Mountaineers" he said, with /,
kind of gasp.
| "Whatp' said, not knowing but i
was another kind of an Indian.
"Grasshoppersr' 1t seems he hat
been there before.
| Iran out, and sure enough there they
were, coming up against the sun like
low kind of cloud. And in minut.
or two il was like being out in a liv,
hail-storm. We tried to fight then
with fire and hot water, but we gave
up in an hour. All day we sat an,
listened to that horrible cracking an,
crunching, and when theygot through
1t looked as If fire had gone over us
Not green thing loft, and corn-stalk
gnawed down to stumps.
We held council of war. The en-,
of it was that we drove our stock int
tho town next day thirty miles, an,
! sold it. 1t didn't make us rich, but a
least we got the price Of the hides
Then three of usj went to work in tn
coal-shippings, and Jim Clayton wen
. back to stay with the women. He ha
smashed his shoulder that summer an
was Of no mortal use with shovel an
pick. Wewere to keep them in SUI
plies, and il looked as il, after all
things might have been worse.
And they got worse before q grea
while. The coal company petered on
Just as the real cold weather set in
We took back q big load of coal; IL wa
the only pay we ever got for our las
for,night's work, and called anothe
couacil.
Along in November late-about th
time when they were keeping Thanks
giving on the side where they kno'
what Thanksgiving means-we starte
nut ON buffalo, hunt There We